"A little song, a little riding, a little shooting and a girl to be saved from hazard" was how a Christian Science Monitor writer once described The Roy Rogers Show. The program was first broadcast in 1944 on the Mutual Network, and switched between that and NBC over the decade it was on the air. The show was originally sponsored by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and later Miles Laboratories, Quaker Oats, Post Toasties and Dodge automobiles financed this popular evening western adventure.
Roy Rogers, the "King of the Cowboys" in the movies, was the star. Naturally, his iconic steed Trigger played a big role on the series, as did Roy's group the Sons of the Pioneers, who originally provided the vocal music along with Roy and the lovely Pat Friday. A year later, Roy's new wife and co-star Dale Evans joined the program (along with her horse Buttermilk), as did the Riders of the Purple Sage and Foy Willing. Roy's comical sidekicks included former Sons of the Pioneers member Pat Brady and the legendary Gabby Hayes, as well as Forrest Lewis, who portrayed the wisest trail scout of them all, Jonah Wilde.
The show was transcribed from the outset, as Roy's contractual obligations precluded him from performing live. The program's original opening theme was "It's Round-Up Time on the Double-R-Bar", which was also the name of Roy's fictional ranch in Paradise Valley on the series. This was later supplanted by the famous "Happy Trails" song, written by Dale Evans. Roy would often close the show, in reference to his Christian beliefs, with the phrase "Goodbye, good luck, and may the good Lord take a likin' to ya."
The information in this synopsis was culled from Radio's Golden Age by Vincent Terrace and On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning.
NOTE: Updated with Version 2 files (04-Jan-2020).
From the Old Time Radio Researchers Group. See "Notes" Section below for more information on the OTRR.
It contains the most complete and accurate version of this series in the best sound possible at the time of creation. An updated version will be issued if more episodes or better sounding ones become available.
This is the Single Episodes Page. The Certified Set includes extras not found here. It is located at OTRR Certified Set. This Single Episodes page is provided in case you want to sample the shows.Note that in many cases, file names have been modified from the original OTRR names to conform to archive.org naming requirements.
If you are interested in preserving Old Time Radio (OTR), you may wish to join the Old Time Radio Researchers Group at Facebook and Groups.io.
Relax, listen, and enjoy!
OTRR Definitions:
OTRR Maintained Set -- This set contains all known episodes in the best available audio condition with the most accurate dates and titles known to be in general circulation and based on current research at the time of release. Replaces OTRR Certified Accurate and OTRR Certified Complete.
OTRR Non-Maintained Set -- A collection of shows that has not gone through the OTRR Maintenance process.
Pre-2019 OTRR Definitions:
OTRR Certified Accurate -- A series that was "Certified Accurate" indicated that all the episodes were properly identified and labeled based on current information but that the series did not contain all known extant episodes.
OTRR Certified Complete -- A series that was "Certified Complete" achieved the highest level of certification available under the OTRR Certified Standards. This certification level implied that all the files in the series were "Certified Accurate" and also indicated that the series was as complete as possible and included all circulating episodes.
OTRR Non-Certified -- A collection of shows that has not gone through the OTRR Certification process.
Also, beginning in 2019, the version numbers of our OTRR releases changed format -- instead of v1.0 or v2.1, we are now using a version number that reflects the year and month the set was released. The format used is a two-digit year followed by a two-digit month. For example, "v1906" indicates a set that was released in June 2019, or "v1910" indicates a set released in October 2019.
NOTE: There are no passwords for any of our ZIP files. If you are prompted for a password, before downloading the file again, try unzipping the file into a shorter full folder path name -- for example, unzip to "C:\" instead of "C:\Documents and Settings\your_Windows_ID\some_other_folder\". Sorry, some of our releases contain long folder and file names, which sometimes manifests itself on the Windows platform as prompting for a password for the ZIP file. Or try renaming the ZIP file itself to a shorter name before unzipping.